The variational contribution of the periodic orbits provided by the Birkhoff-Lewis theorem (with applications to convex Hamiltonians and to three-body--type problems) (Q1261115)

This is a rambling study of the subject described by the long title of the work. The work starts with the assumption that a Hamiltonian system satisfying the hypotheses of the Birkhoff-Lewis theorem is given and, therefore, the system already has infinitely many periodic orbits provided by the theorem and the aim is to try to understand the properties of the periodic orbits as critical points of the infinite- dimensional variational problem corresponding to the action functional. It turns out that at this stage not much can be established in full generality, so certain additional hypotheses are made. The consequence is that the main results become too long and cumbersome to be stated or even described in a short review. Nevertheless, students of periodic orbits or of the calculus of variations will find here much food for thought and also a few interesting conjectures.